My Year of Love

It's love day everybody!

This morning I woke and was not feeling very full of love for this commercial lil' thing we call Valentine's Day. It can be a day that reminds some of us that we are not going to be the recipient of flowers or chocolates! For me personally it is also a day that reminds me that so many I love have passed on and are no longer in the world to say "I love you" to... Sigh...

Okay Queen Bee are you going to carry on like this all day? No way! I decided to think of the love that I do have  in my life and my first thoughts are drawn to the fluffy white pooch who is my loyal and royal companion Ruben Romeo Valentino Casanova Ferrari Pineapple. Okay my fine friend let's get you on your way to a puppy love kinda day. Yes Ruben is off to spend the day with his lady love Belle Parfait! 

 

So off we trotted to get our red rose from our good friends in Top of Town Ipswich - Janette from Precious Packages and Obsession Shoes, Louisa and Phill from Serendipity and Vintage by Lou Lou and to my lovely surprise the gorgeous Mandy from Popeto Portrait Studios. And there on the outside display table were my perfectly potted pineapple plants! My not so secret passion for the international symbol of welcome - the humble pineapple! Ah now I'm feeling the love. Ruben got his rose for his girl and I got my fix of love from friends and great coffee!

 So today I can celebrate love in all its forms and mark this day by declaring it my year of love! Tonight I will light one of these divine rose scented heart candles and let the world know that this is the year of meeting "Mr Pineapple"!


Speaking of love, I can't help but think how timely that I received in the post on the eve of this day postcard from 1961 to add to my collection of all things pineapple. This postcard gave me a great deal of joy. I was expecting the beautiful picture on the front of a stunning Hawaiian pineapple princess in her red and white sarong, dark coconut infused locks, welcoming polynesian eyes and pearly white smile, hugging a bounty of two golden ripe pines with perfect verdant crowns complete with island sunshine and volcanic peaks in the background. This vintage treasure didn't disappoint!

What I didn't expect however was the handwritten note from Edna, postmarked 8pm 7 Jun 1961! It was a sweet treat for her poor friends in Ohio with hint of humour and a twist of tantalising tales to be revealed at a later date, penned on the sands of Waikiki! What an unexpected gift... a glimpse into the lives of unknown holiday maker. It is the mystery that intrigues... who was Edna? Was she single? Was she young or middle aged? Did she work? Was she wealthy? Did she live by herself? Did she have a dog? Did she like pineapple?

I will one day be an Edna... a fading footprint on this earth... While I am sentimental by nature, I am also optimistic! This intersection in time has inspired me to declare this year of love for Queen Bee (aka KA), love in everyday moments, love for life, love for what and who I have in my world and love for what and who is to come. And I wish YOU love as without love we are a postcard that never reach their destinations!

So today my definition of love is... a love message that is delivered moment by moment...


Your go... see if you can finish this sentence as I'd love to hear what you have to say...


Love is...


xx Queen Bee


P.S. You might even like to make your own groovy "Love is..." board. Here's a great set of instructions from Stashhappy!

Bambinos make it BIG!

Creative Cards by Angel

The first ever bunch of budding business Bambinos held their very own market stall at at market within a market - Bambino Bazaar at Rusco Market Bazaar at Tivoli Drive-in - on Saturday 25 June 2011! And BOY did they go gangbusters! The were selling like seasoned professionals with over half of the stalls selling out completely. It was a fairytale come true!

Cassie's Colourful Creations - 6 years!!

Over 10 weeks, our first bambinos, aged 8 -12years came to The Ellenborough Room (Top of Town, Ipswich) thanks to the generous "Knight in Shining Armour" sponsorship of Janette Adams from Precious Packages, who offered this meeting room free of charge and storage space.

Kerryanne Farrer, director and "Queen Bee" of Pineapple Productions guided our bambinos step-by- step through the basics of business principals - a mini MBA (micro business accreditation!).

 Each week, we covered the principles of business in a child-friendly manner. Children would have homework to work on during the week with the support of parents and mentors.



The basic structure of the course followed these topics:

Black Eagle, Imagination = Creation

• Once Upon A Time... (Dreaming/Vision/Focusing On Your Talents And Interests) 
• Mirror Mirror On The Wall, What’s My Best Idea N’all? (Deciding On Your Main Product) 
• I’ll Huff And I’ll Puff And I’ll Test My Idea (Feasibility Of Your Product) 
• 5 Magic Beans For Your Cow (Pricing Your Product And Budgeting) 
• Aladdin rubs the magic lamp (Fundraising and Sponsorship) 
• Selling The Emperor His New Clothes (Branding, Marketing, Communication) 
• Rapunzel, Rapunzel Throw Down Your Hair (Structures And Safety) 
• And The Ugly Duckling Became A Beautiful Swan (Signage And Presentation) 
• You Shall Go To The Ball Cinderella (Final Preparations for Market set up) 
• MARKET DAY
• And They All Lived Happily Ever After (Debrief: How Did You Go? What’s next?)

Lady Lily's Handmaids

Our two youngest participants were Cassie and Lily who were siblings of older participants and they did an excellent job, with a lot of support from mentors and parents.

This course is designed to develop the natural creative talents of the participants, and to give these skills a commercial application, so that children and their families can see the value of creativity and creative intelligence.

It was such a delight to see the local business community step up to the challenge and so generously offer support in many different ways.

Buttons in the Billabong

The most immediate involvement was to become a "Fairy Godmother" mentor. Thanks to the Ipswich Women in Business network, we had 5 mentors:

• Janette Adams of Precious Packages
• Louisa Janke of Vintage by Lou Lou
• Bonnie Wilkins of Blis Design
• Bec Lewis from Little Brown Dog
• Lorelle Mac from Wirey Beads

These mentors had a wide variety of artform expertise and business experience and were matched with Bambinos who had either a similar type of craft or was a match for the personalities involved.  Mentors attended workshops when they could, presented on one of the topics and kept in regular contact with the junior entrepreneurs to support them in their journey and assist with ideas, networks and advice.

Amelia Bobelia

Amelia Bobelia was generously supported by a "Golden Goose" sponsor, Miss Nina Rose Home Decor Consultants, who offered a scholarship position to a flood affected family. Amelia and her mum were thrilled by the opportunity and created gorgeous up-cycled candle holders, decorations and, the best sellers... wish jars! What a great idea Amelia Bobelia!

The Ipswich business community was very supportive of our Bambinos by providing vouchers for our Bambino's spend at their stores:

• ArtTime supplies
• Bargain Box Fabrics
• NewsXpress Riverlink

This in-kind funding really assisted the entrepreneurs in being able to create their products.
 

One of the revelations of the course was how unfamiliar children are with handling money and understanding its value, how to give change, etc. The finance content of the course proved a challenge in both designing age appropriate activities and for the children to grasp advanced topics such as pricing your product in a relatively short time frame. One the market day parents offered arms length support to assist Bambinos to make sales confidently.

Our market sponsor is Ruth from Rusco Markets who runs the Tivoli Market Bazaar, a fortnightly community market for new and pre-loved treasures.

The marquees, tables and chairs that housed our Bambinos on the day were kindly provided Tivoli Miracle Centre at Tivoli Drive-in

The Bambinos were welcomed and encouraged by the regular stall holders who visited their stalls and were very complimentary of their products and presentation.

A big part of the course for the junior entrepreneurs was identifying their community network so that they could assist their individual business through helping with resources and marketing and promotion. And their community turned out on market day to support them! Instant feedback!

The Bambinos operated as a small community of marketeers, helping each other and encouraging one another.

And they also bought products from one another. It was a truly cooperative and collaborative experience.

The result was overwhelming - sell out stalls, obvious growth in self-confidence from each of the participants, lots of inquiries about how to enrol in the next course... it was a Bambino Bonanza!

Melonhead

Kerryanne Farrer of Pineapple Productions

Bravo Bambinos - this Queen Bee of Pineapple Productions is proud as pineapple punch of each and every one of you! As they say the proof is in the pudding.

The next course starts on Thursday 21 July and continues for 10 weeks until 22 September, with a market day at Rusco Market Bazaar at Tivoli Drive-in on Saturday 17 September! Book in now as places are strictly limited! email bambinobazaar@gmail.com or phone Kerryanne on 0417 731 641

For more info visit Pineapple Productions




Bambino Bazaar is a 10-week course for junior creative entrepreneurs to learn the basics of small business through hand-crafted enterprise that culminates in running their own stall at a real live market. Designed specifically for 8-12 year olds from the Ipswich, West Brisbane and Lockyer Valley communities, it is Pineapple Production's goal to develop Bambino Bazaar as a regular feature on the Ipswich cultural calendar. It is envisaged that courses will run 3-4 times during each year.


Bambino Bazaar aims to:
•Provide opportunities for children to discover and explore their talents, dreams and abilities
•Assist participants to understand the basic principals of small business
•Improve self-confidence, self-respect and respect for others
•Inspire participants to engage in creative activities and enterprise on a regular basis
•Strengthen the bond between community, arts and business and enrich the lives of participants, facilitators, mentors, sponsoring businesses and local government
•Raise awareness of sustainable business practice


Bambino Bazaar’s multi-faceted curriculum will unfold within a safe, fun, creative environment, facilitated by a dynamic entrepreneur, alongside a host of experienced and vibrant mentors, guest speakers and business representatives in a child-friendly manner which promotes creative thinking and independent decision making.

Mother's Day 2011

Aloha! from Queen Bee Ka-La Aloha Ferrari Pineapple. Please feel free to call me Queen Bee!

Annette Farrer with baby Queen Bee (Kerryanne)

On this Mother's day, I pay tribute to my royal lineage of Artistes, my mother, Annette (Netty) Marie Farrer (nee Ryan), my maternal grandmother, Kathleen (Kit) Mae Ryan (nee Noone) and my paternal grandmother, Elsie Violet Farrer (nee Brown-John). All three were artists, although none had the privilege of being able to earn a professional living directly from art practice. Both Netty and Kit were self taught teachers of speech and drama and art respectively. Elsie I don't know too much about, except that she kept her love of painting hidden from her presbyterian husband, and would hold secret painting circles while he was at work and remove all evidence before his homecoming.

Kit Ryan (centre) with her clan

Elsie Violet Farrer

I remember once hearing that for a true artist, practicing your art is not a job, rather it is something you are compelled to do, somewhat like breathing, you can voluntarily stop until the body takes over and you have to involuntarily take a breath. On this day I honour this gift given to me by my ancestors and particularly my mother, who gave me the greatest gift of life.  I was in-spired when I took my first breath, and grew to value arts, colour, texture, music, rhythm, melody, literature, poetry, theatre, spoken word, fine food, cooking, festivals, aesthetics and creativity.

Netty as the Fruit Loop for
Doblo's TV ads in Rockvegas

This is the first Mother's Day spent without my mum, who passed away on 22 December 2010. And while this sounds sad, it doesn't feel that way, rather a confirmation of who I am. Oddly it feels like freedom, a release to be Ka-La Queen Bee Aloha Ferrari Pineapple in all her glory. It is this persona who can be fine, fruity and fabulous, a larger than life version of the woman I was destined to be! I wonder where I ever got this from?

Soooo... what better way to give to the amazing mother's in my life, past and present, than to create an edible bouquet for Carita (Mama to Moe and Eadie), my sister, Dawn, Carita's Mother-in-Law (Carita's husband Hayden's Mum) and Lorna (Dawn's Mum) for Mother's Day with my nephew Moe (5) and Eadie (3). 

Welcome to Queen Bee's Kitchen... 

Firstly you will need some very good looking fruit that will stay firm. I chose Pineapple (of course), strawberries, Figs (very nice), rockmelon (which we didn't end up using, but you could scoop into balls),  honeydew melon, and grapes. You will need a florists block, waterproof wrapping (we used a metalic wrapping and cellophane) bamboo skewers, cookie cutters, knife and cutting board, bowls and a sense of humour!

The trick is to get the fruit on the sticks before its all eaten!

 Once you have chopped the fruit and cut out shapes with cutters, it's time to start threading the bamboo skewers. This is quite tricky for little fingers so it requires a little bit of adult assistance.

 Then the fun of arranging the "flowers" in the florists block. You can see I've recycled one from an old bunch of flowers, already in a heavy base, great idea as those skewers are quite top heavy!

Add your wrapping and voila! A bouquet fit for a Queen Mother! And the aroma is something else... leaves those interflora flowers for dead! Yummo!

And here are the happy recipients being presented with their award for being the BEST!

And for that finishing touch, serve with chocolate dipping sauce, oooh la la, and they won't last long!

How did you spend your Mother's Day? Do you give handmade, homegrown, or home baked gifts? What is the most creative gift you have ever given? 

Until next time, stay fresh, sweet and full of flavour

xx

Queen Bee